01/06/2015

5-Week Program for Progressive Overload | Muscle & Fitness

WORKOUT PLANS

GOAL: HYPERTROPHY, BUILD

MUSCLE, UPPER BODY
DEFINITION, BUILD STRENGTH
SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED
DURATION: 5 WEEKS
DAYS PER WEEK: 5

5-WEEK PROGRAM FOR PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

Gradually increase the stress on your body each week for more muscle and strength.
START THIS PROGRAM

Today's fitness world can be confusing with a multitude of tools being thrown at you. The list is endless: supersests, drop sets, slow negatives, partial reps, and so
on. The problem with the bombardment of information and subsequent bandwith overload is that it's easy to lose sight of what truly matters in oder to make
progress. An important pricinple to adopt right away is progressive overload.
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GET STRESSED
Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during training. The principal is about continuously increasing the demands on the
muscoloskeletal system so that you can make gains in muscle size, strength, and endurance. In simplest terms: to get bigger and stronger, you must lift more
weight and add more volume -- making your muscles work harder than what they're used to. Without this concept, there will be no improvement.
It sounds simple enough, yet we all know someone who's been a gym-goer for years and ends up getting nowhere. In nine out of ten cases, the overload principle
was violated.
A simplistic progressive overloading program is just the trick. I personally like the way Mike Isreatel and Nick Shaw from Renaissance Periodization do things.
The first basis of this program is to figure out your diet, and then setting up a training routine. Next, set up your training weights by calculating your 70-75 percent
max.
In the first week, you'll train about 70 percent, moving the weights up in 3-5 percent increments each week, finishing to about 85 percent. This holds primarily for
compound exercises. Note that the smaller exercises will progress in smaller steps. Here is my way of increasing the weights every two weeks.
As an example, lets assume that you can bench 300 pounds x 10 -- giving you a max weight of 380. You would start the program at around 300 pounds without
going to failure, then add volume and weight as you go along. The program is for someone who has decent legs but lacks upper body mass and strength. This is a
five-week program, the fifth week being a recovery week.
Now I know this program will not work forever, so in week five, halve the volume and the reps to give your body and central nervous system a chance to recover.
As for rest days for the program, you can switch them but just make sure that you stick to the original sequence.

WEEK 1:
70% Max

DAY 1
START
VERTICAL PRESS

DAY 2

START

HIGH PULLS

DAY 3

START

LEGS

DAY 4

START

REST

DAY 5

START

HORIZONTAL PRESS

DAY 6
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DAY 6

5-Week Program for Progressive Overload | Muscle & Fitness

START

REST

DAY 7

START

LOW PULLS

WEEK 2:
75% Max

DAY 8

START

VERTICAL PRESS

DAY 9

START

REST

DAY 10

START

HIGH PULLS

DAY 11

START

LEGS

DAY 12

START

REST

DAY 13

START

HORIZONTAL PRESS

DAY 14

START

LOW PULLS

WEEK 3:
80% Max

DAY 15

START

VERTICAL PRESS

DAY 16

START

REST

DAY 17

START

HIGH PULLS

DAY 18

START

LEGS

DAY 19

START

REST

DAY 20

START

HORIZONTAL PRESS

DAY 21

START

LOW PULLS

WEEK 4:
85% Max

DAY 22

START

VERTICAL PRESS

DAY 23

START

HIGH PULLS

DAY 24

START

REST

DAY 25
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01/06/2015
DAY 25

5-Week Program for Progressive Overload | Muscle & Fitness

START

LEGS

DAY 26

START

HORIZONTAL PRESS

DAY 27

START

REST

DAY 28

START

LOW PULLS

WEEK 5:
50% of Week 4 Weight/Volume

DAY 29

START

VERTICAL PRESS

DAY 30

START

HIGH PULLS

DAY 31

START

REST

DAY 32

START

LEGS

DAY 33

START

HORIZONTAL PRESS

DAY 34

START

REST

DAY 35

START

LOW PULLS

START THIS PROGRAM

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